Research: law firms lack vital visibility into matter budgeting and profitability

Global News

03
Nov
2020

Editor

The latest legal pricing and profitability research, released today from BigHand, has revealed that legal matter pricing and budgeting processes are flawed for the majority of law firms.

A startling low percentage of firms have access to up-to-date budgeting information, and an even smaller amount provides regular updates on budget overruns to its partners – the very people responsible for updating clients.

The global pricing and profitability survey was launched by BigHand, in conjunction with TVPI and ALPMA, and ran between September and October 2020. It gathered 250 responses from senior legal financial professionals across North America, APAC, the UK and Europe.

The results raise many questions about the state of law firm pricing, the impact that COVID-19 has had, and more long-term trends that need to be addressed for firms to simultaneously provide client transparency around legal pricing, and maintain profitability.

The findings include many revelations such as:

• A large amount of firms using inadequate legal pricing tools such as Excel for matter budgeting
• A severe lack of visibility into individual matter profitability
• An absence of visibility over matter budgets or profitability for law firm partners

The findings report provides an accurate view of the state of legal pricing and profitability in law firms today, and addresses the fundamental needs for better people, processes and legal budgeting technology for firms to survive in the current economic uncertainty. 

To find out more or to read the full report, visit the BigHand website.